


“Decode”

by wolfjillyjill



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: Abby (mentioned) - Freeform, Abby Anderson (mentioned), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Humor, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Apologies, Banter, Character Development, Conversations, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Family, Family Feels, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Forgiveness, Getting Back Together, Holding Hands, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Joel (mentioned) - Freeform, Joel Miller (mentioned), Kissing, Late Night Conversations, Lev (mentioned), Post-Canon, Reconciliation, These girls are always silly with each other, dellie - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:21:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25436089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfjillyjill/pseuds/wolfjillyjill
Summary: “Pretty sure if you keep stargazing at my house then your five minutes are gonna run out.” Her tone, as defensive as ever.“Yeah…” Ellie visibly swallowed. Her left hand coming up to scratch at the back of her neck anxiously, as she slowly made her way to where Dina stood. She stopped a few feet from her, as to not crowd her personal space. “…sorry, I, was surprised you kept them…”Dina takes a second to glance at the artwork in question, then looks back at Ellie. “Yeah, well, I’ve always been a sucker for how good I look in pictures.”Ellie chuckles at the kind attempt at humor that was very ‘Dina’ in its delivery. “Yeah, that ego of yours certainly gets out of hand sometimes.”“Oh, like you’re one to talk.” Dina shoots back surprisingly playfully.akaMy take on how Dina and Ellie made up after she returned from Santa Barbara.
Relationships: Dina & Ellie (The Last of Us), Dina & JJ (The Last of Us), Dina/Ellie (The Last of Us), Ellie & JJ (The Last of Us)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 245





	“Decode”

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kredkadt](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kredkadt/gifts).



> The Last of Us Part 2 is officially my favorite game of all time, and Ellie x Dina are my heart and soul. I had to write something for them. I'm sure plenty of people have already written their own versions of this interaction, but this is mine.
> 
> This is also a tribute to one of my favorite artists. Their art for Ellie x Dina has slapped me with inspiration, and I just needed to do something to thank them for it. 
> 
> Please leave your thoughts in the comments below or come to my tumblr page to tell me what you think, I love hearing from my audience and will respond back as soon as I can. And if you want, leave some lovely kudos, I'll definitely appreciate it. And if you'd like me to write for this fandom again, please let me know!
> 
> Thank you!

“Decode”

“So…”

Her voice is guarded. Strained in a way Ellie was definitely not familiar with. At least, not directed at her. _‘But that’s to be expected, isn’t it?’_ Ellie thought to herself. Her head low, looking down at her hands. Doing that nervous fumbling that she does whenever she’s forced into social situations she’s not entirely prepared for.

Except, she was prepared this time. At least on paper. She’d written her words down in her journal over and over again. The scribbling not as neat and legible as it once was, now that she was missing a few appendages. But she could translate it well enough. Though, now that she was finally here and ready to take a chance at peacemaking, her words felt like gibberish in her mind and were lost on her tongue.

Dina sighed loudly and impatient. Her arms crossed defensively over her chest like a shield of armor over her heart. “Listen, Ellie, I…” She hesitated for a second, choosing her words carefully. “…I’m glad to see you’re alive and seemingly well. But I’ve got an early morning ahead of me and I just got JJ down for the night. If you have something to say…” the rest of her sentence, hanging in the air, but with purpose.

The invitation was clear, and Ellie knew if she didn’t take it then there might not be another opportunity. “C-Can I, um,” She clears her throat, and starts again. “Can I, come in?”

“Ellie…”

“Just for a second.” Ellie quickly clarifies. “I just…just give me five minutes. I’ll say what I gotta say and then I’ll be out of your hair.”

Dina looked at her with that pensive and suspicious stare that Ellie knew meant she wanted to grant the request, but was also afraid to. Debating in her head over whatever the angel and demon on her shoulders were saying.

“Five minutes.” Ellie intervened. “That’s all I’m asking for, I promise.”

Dina stares at her for what feels like hours, mulling over her options before she momentarily closes her eyes and does a full body sigh. The defense in her shoulders dropping the slightest bit, but the tension still visible. It’s when those deep, mocha colored eyes meet her malachite ones, that she knows Dina has come to a decision.

“Five minutes.” She says definitively before she turns around and walks into her home.

Ellie takes that as her que to enter, and does so. She makes sure that the screened and wooden doors close as quietly as possible behind her, as to not make echoes and wake the sleeping baby she assumes is in one of the back rooms. When Ellie had returned to Jackson the night before, she wasn’t surprised to learn that Dina and JJ were in fact here. Dina was always a smart and careful person, so it would have been the safest option for both their sakes. She also wasn’t surprised that Dina’s old little house in Jackson had remained unoccupied while she lived with Ellie at their farm. Maria wasn’t one to replace anyone’s presence no matter where they went off to (even Joel's residence remained untouched over a year later), so it made sense that she’d settle somewhere familiar.

Like Ellie’s, it was one story, but much wider in space. It had two fairly spacious bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen that connected with the living room and entryway. All the décor was very much _Dina_. Filled with pictures of friends and family, artwork from the kids in Jackson, a few nods to her Jewish heritage, and paintings of horses and snowy mountains that they’d found over the years in abandoned settlements. It was very homey, and peaceful. _‘Just like Dina.’_

Ellie never really went to Dina’s place before everything happened (usually they’d all hang out at Ellie’s or Jesse’s, or be outside), so she takes in the full view of what’s on display in front of her. Admiring the place that Dina had created for herself and JJ in the months since she’d been gone. Her stomach practically leapt from her body at the fading aroma of what she guessed was Shakshuka. One of Ellie’s personal favorites from Dina’s old family recipes. She guessed she’d probably found ingredients during her recent supply run. Dina was always the better cook between them. Though she tried to teach Ellie a few times, the results were often disastrous. A memory that triggers a small smile to grace her face.

As she surveys her surroundings, her eyes land on something she didn’t expect to find. A wall on the far end of the living room, right above and behind the TV, is decorated with some of Ellie’s art pieces. Specifically, the side-profile paintings of Dina and JJ that Ellie had done for them just before she’d left the farm. Even though she hadn’t fully finished them (there were still some shadings she’d planned to do), they looked beautiful. Hanging in a place for all to see. Her signature from before, inscribed in the corner. It warmed her in a way she hadn’t felt in a long time.

Her gaze then finds another piece; one she’s held very dear to her heart. Sitting in an oak picture frame and hanging in the corner of the room beside the couch, was the first drawing Ellie had done of Dina and JJ after he was born. The shaded image was of Dina holding JJ in her arms, cradling him and nuzzling her nose on his forehead. He loved it when his mother did that. And Ellie loved watching it as it happened.

It made her heart jump and her eyes water. The memories cascading along her mind, and bringing her back to the things she took for granted. Days filled with lazily cuddling on their porch and sharing childhood stories with JJ, whom of course had no idea what they were saying. Of Ellie getting JJ to throw paint at Dina while they were in Ellie’s studio. Him and Ellie laughing as Dina complained and feigned offense to the action. Of nights, sitting by the fire, JJ dozing off in Dina’s arms on the couch while Ellie played a song on Joel’s old guitar.

She’d missed it all. Missed it all so very much. Enough that it hurt just remembering them, because now there was a possibility that she’d screwed up so bad, that she’d never have any of that back again.

The sound of Dina clearing her throat brings Ellie back to the present. She turns around to see Dina in the kitchen area. Leaning against the counter, her arms crossed over her chest again, and her shoulders squared. This most definitely was not going to be easy.

“Pretty sure if you keep stargazing at my house then your five minutes are gonna run out.” Her tone, as defensive as ever.

“Yeah…” Ellie visibly swallowed. Her left hand coming up to scratch at the back of her neck anxiously, as she slowly made her way to where Dina stood. She stopped a few feet from her, as to not crowd her personal space. “…sorry, I, was surprised you kept them…”

Dina takes a second to glance at the artwork in question, then looks back at Ellie. “Yeah, well, I’ve always been a sucker for how good I look in pictures.”

Ellie chuckles at the kind attempt at humor that was very _‘Dina’_ in its delivery. “Yeah, that ego of yours certainly gets out of hand sometimes.”

“Oh, like you’re one to talk.” Dina shoots back surprisingly playfully.

A small smile is shared between the two women. One that signals that there was no reason all of this needed to be awkward. Something that makes Ellie relax and calm her nerves somewhat. No matter how much time had passed or how things had been left between them, Dina still knew Ellie better than anyone else. And she knew that Ellie needed to feel like she was in a safe space before she could speak freely. Ellie picked up on that, and it gave her the slightest bit of hope that maybe things could be set right.

“So, did you do it?” Dina, getting straight to the point.

“If you mean, did I kill Abby?” Ellie replied. “Then, no.”

Dina looked shocked at the answer. “No? Was Tommy’s intel wrong?”

“No, it was right.” Ellie said calmly. “Abby and that boy she was with were living in some boat off the coast of Santa Barbara. At least for a while though, they hadn’t been there for months by the time I’d gotten there.”

“Okay, then, what happened?”

Ellie sighed and started to slowly pace as she began to recount her story. “After I realized the boat was basically abandoned, I tried to track them. Ran into some infected before I got myself caught in this trap laid by some other rival group in the area. Fucked up my side real bad after I slammed into a sharp end of a tree.” She lifted her two shirts up a little to reveal the mostly healed scar that was left behind on her side.

Dina, always fascinated with battle scars, approached Ellie and lightly traced the scaring with her fingers. Admiring the rather gnarly damaged flesh on the side of Ellie’s torso. It had taken nearly two weeks to fully heal, and even longer for the pain to dissipate.

“Wow, shit, this must have hurt like hell.” Dina responded, still studying the wound.

“You have no idea.” Ellie said. “Took almost all my medical supplies to get the bastard bleeding under control.”

“Your stitching is still shit, though, obviously.” Dina jested.

“We all can’t be savvy medical professionals.”

“Clearly.”

Another playful smile was shared between them before Dina seemed to remember she was supposed to be angry with Ellie. She coughed under her breath as she backed away from Ellie and leaned on the counter once again.

"So, what else happened after your clumsy ass got strung up?" She tried to sound disinterested, but Ellie knew Dina well enough to pick up on the fact that she was very much intrigued to hear the rest of the story.

Ellie took it as a good sign, pulled her shirts back into place, and continued, "I was hanging there for a while, a clicker, who also got caught, swaying a few feet from me, until eventually the group that set them came looking. Was this big ugly looking dude, and his wimpy ass of a friend."

"Bet the wimpy one still had bigger guns than you, though." Dina commented.

Ellie brought her right arm up to do a mock flex, "Hey now, I'm getting there."

Dina snorted. "Yeah, I'm sure you are." She tries to fight the smile that's obviously begging to make an appearance. "Go on."

“Yeah, so, they were all loud and proud of themselves when they found me hanging there like a stuffed pig. Later found out they were catching survivors and using them as slaves in their settlement. Anyway, after they cut me down, I took them out and got the word that they had Abby and the kid in a holding cell somewhere before offing the big guy. Long story-short, I made my way through their camp, freed the people they had captured and those guys burned the place to the ground. But before that, one of them told me Abby was in the ‘pillars’ area down on the beach, so I went there and...”

Dina watches Ellie’s body language completely change as she gets to the part where she assumes she’d found Abby. The sudden pause, a clear sign that whatever Ellie saw there had impacted her a lot. “Sounds like you had to go through a hell of a lot just to finally find her.”

Ellie looks at her shoes, almost as somber as the day she looked when she’d visited Joel before their journey long ago. “…yeah…”

Ellie’s silence struck a nerve for Dina. Triggering the response to comfort her, even though part of herself thought she shouldn’t. Against her ‘better’ judgement, she slowly walks over to Ellie, stopping just beside her. She reaches for Ellie’s hand instinctively, but notices for the first time that something was different about it. She lifts it hesitantly, her eyes falling to meet it in the middle, and gasps at what she sees. “…Ellie…your fingers…they’re…”

Ellie chuckles humorlessly under her breath. “…Yeah…” She says, sounding defeated. “…it was my fault…this happened, because of me…”

Dina goes between studying at Ellie’s face and examining her missing fingers. Trying to use the context clues to fill in the gaps. “…I’m guessing she was none too pleased to see you either…”

“Can’t say if that were the case or not, honestly.” Ellie finally answers after a spell. She licked her cracked lips and sighed before pushing herself to finish her story. “When I got to the beach, Abby and the kid were tied up to these huge posts. Along with dozens of others, though they were the only ones still breathing. Looked like they’d been there for a while.” She brings her other hand up to anxiously scratch at the back of her neck for a second, before letting it fall to her side, and going on with her story once more. “They were in worse shape than I’d ever imagined they’d be. I thought she was dead, at first. She was real thin, more so even than me. Looked dehydrated and beaten down…I would have thought that was it for her, had she not coughed and begged me to help her…”

Dina cradled Ellie’s altered hand in hers, squeezing it encouragingly. “You helped her.”

“…I helped her…” Ellie confirmed. “…but that wasn’t the end of it.” She sighed again. “Once she was free and she freed the boy, she led me to some boats that were at the end of the beach. After I’d seen just how much she’d been through, I thought of just getting into the other boat and leaving, but…”

“…but you couldn’t…”

Ellie nodded. “…I couldn’t. No matter how much she’d been tortured and broken, it didn’t feel like enough. I couldn’t let it go. I couldn’t let Joel…” Ellie’s other hand clenched tightly at her side. “…I couldn’t just let what she did to Joel go…so I forced her to fight me…”

“Ellie…” Dina’s voice was a mixture of understanding and slight disappointment.

“I know. I know...” Ellie replied, remorsefully. “…we gave each other everything. Everything we had left in us. Sliced her up good with my blade a few times. Then she got my fingers at some point, as you see.” She wiggled the stumps within Dina’s grasp for emphasis. “It took a while, but I finally got her down. Had her head underneath the water and everything. All I had to do was hold it there just a little longer, then it would have been over. I would be done…but…”

“…but you couldn’t…”

“…I saw Joel…looking at me. I knew it was all in my head, but...I saw Joel…I saw him, and I…” Ellie’s voice bubbled up with so many waves of emotion. More than Dina had ever heard before. She took both Ellie’s hands in hers then, holding them tightly and with care. “…in that moment I knew…” Ellie sobbed. “…no matter what Abby had done; I knew killing her wasn’t going to bring him back. I knew it wasn’t going to make the pain go away. And I knew…I knew that it wasn’t what Joel would have wanted for me…” Ellie lifts her head, finally meeting Dina’s eyes. “…I’m so, so sorry Dina…”

Dina’s eyes welled up with tears, her head shaking side to side. “…Ellie…”

“No, I need you to hear it. I need you to know how fucking sorry I am…” Ellie breathed. “…If I had just figured that out sooner, then I wouldn’t have walked away from you. From JJ. From the life we’d begun to build.” Ellie confessed. “If I’d just fucking put that together before, then I wouldn’t have lost my fingers…I’d still be able to play Joel’s guitar, and…”

“But you wouldn’t have made peace with yourself.” Dina intercepts.

Ellie stops her mournful rambling, looking at Dina like a wounded animal. Tears tracking down her face.

Dina brings one of her hands up, caressing Ellie’s cheek for a moment before resting it there. “Oh, Ellie…” Her voice is tame, almost as tender as her touch. “…as much as it broke my heart that you left us, seeing you now…I know that had you not gone after Abby, you would have held onto that suffering inside you for the rest of your life.”

“…Dina…”

“You thought I didn’t notice, but I did.” Dina says. “Behind every smile you gave me and JJ, I could see the sorrow that was still there. The loss. The wondering. I knew you hadn’t been the you that you tried so hard to be for us after Abby let us go that night.” Dina’s thumb lightly brushes along Ellie’s skin, making them both sigh with a hint of relaxation. “Looking at you now, I can see the change. I can see a calm in you that I don’t believe has ever been there before.” Dina’s gaze observes Ellie for a second before she asks, “You’ve forgiven him, haven’t you?”

“How did you…”

Dina chuckled, “You’re not the big enigma you think you are, Boston girl.”

Ellie’s lips up turn into a small smile, a light laugh leaving them. “I guess I’m not.”

“Well, not to me, anyway.” Dina returns the smile.

They stay like that for a bit. Looking between each other. Their eyes roaming the face of the other and mapping it all over again to register every new feature they could find. There was so much more that Ellie wanted to say, but in this moment, she was just content with the feeling of Dina touching her again and meeting her eyes. She was afraid that if she spoke, that it might break the illusion of serenity that had been surrounding them. However, eventually, reality felt the need to creep in.

The sound of JJ whining in the next room jarred them both back to themselves.

“Shit, give me a minute.” Dina said, before swiftly making her way to what Ellie assumed was her and JJ’s room.

Ellie sighs and waits anxiously. Her hands fiddling with each other again in their usual nervous fashion. Her mind shifting through thoughts of what were the right things to say to Dina once she returned. But then, something causes her inner monologue to halt. She calms just a little as she eaves drops and hears Dina lovingly attending to JJ. Talking sweetly to him, and being the very example of nurturing. Quieting him down almost immediately. Dina had been such a master at handling JJ from day one. Never once faltering in her abilities to lift his spirits. It was like her superpower, and Ellie was sure that Dina was always meant to be a mother.

“There, there, guess whose here little spud?” Dina makes her way out of the room with a half asleep JJ resting on her hip and in her arms. “Look, who’s that?”

JJ’s face lights up instantly upon seeing Ellie and he starts giggling gleefully.

“Hey there, potato buddy.” Ellie says smoothly, a big smile catching on her face like a flame. “Look how big you’ve gotten.”

“Ewwie! Ewwie!” JJ says among his baby gibberish, making both women smile and laugh along with him.

“You can say my name?” Ellie replied with shock and pride. Lighting up instantaneously and fighting back tears as he continued to call out to her, giving him her fingers to grab onto and play with. She looks to Dina, “He said my name.” Her tone, subdued by the emotions charging through her over the event.

“Mhm.” Dina smiled as she watched the two of them. “He started saying it sometime after you’d gone. He said ‘mommy’ first, so don’t let your head get too big. But he recognized you in one of the pictures back at the farm and started saying your name on his own.”

“Guess he remembered it from all the times you’d yell at me for not doing the dishes.” Ellie quipped.

“Guess he did.” Dina rolled her eyes merrily, then walked over to the couch in the living room, and signaled Ellie to join them.

They all sat together, playing and talking with JJ. Poking at his belly and feet. Him, crawling between them and laughing for a while, before he finally got tired and rested in Ellie’s arms. Ellie figured Dina would eventually take him and put him back in his bed then shoo her off, but she didn’t. Instead, Dina just sat at the opposite end of the couch, watching them. Smiling at them as JJ further snuggled into the warmth of Ellie’s red and black flannel. Ellie noticed her watching them, feeling joyfully overwhelmed with the nostalgia of their time at the farm.

She’d missed this. She’d missed them so much.

“We missed you.” Dina confessed in a hushed tone, responding as if she could read Ellie’s thoughts like page in a book.

“Yeah?”

Dina nodded daintily.

“Figured you might have grown to liking not having to fight over the blanket with both of us all night anymore.” Ellie jested in a whisper.

Those mocha eyes moved from JJ’s sleeping form to stare at Ellie. But this time it was more akin to how she used to look at her. Like back when they were growing up. When Ellie made a bad pun or sang her a song by the bonfire. When Ellie would draw little cartoons in her book and share it with Dina. Like that night they danced and Dina had kissed Ellie for the first time. It was a look that would render Ellie completely dysfunctional. Casting her under a spell of tranquility and persuasion.

“I missed you, Ellie.”

Ellie’s heart hammered in her own ears so hard, she was afraid it would wake JJ again. But all it seemed to do was soothe him even further. She visibly swallowed as she remained trapped within the other woman’s gaze.

“I missed you too, Dina.” She finally said after the world around her stopped spinning.

The smile on Dina’s face was brighter than the sunniest days in Jackson, and it made Ellie swoon like a teenager all over again. “I knew you would.” She said with a hint of mirth, her voice still low to safeguard themselves from waking JJ.

“Always thinking so highly of yourself, huh?”

“Would you have me any other way?” Dina’s brow quirked.

“Give me a second to think about that…”

Dina feigned a gasp, and lightly slapped at Ellie’s knee.

“Hey, hey, sleeping potato aboard here.” Ellie breathily chuckled, holding him soundly while his mother continued to playfully slap at her legs.

“Well, you have a lot of sleepless baby crying nights to make up for, so why not start now?”

Ellie stopped wiggling at that. Her face turning more serious, but hopeful as she looked at Dina. “So, does that mean…”

Dina stared at her for touch, the wheels turning in her head. “I didn’t think I would want you back after you left.” Dina replied. “If you didn’t die and came back, I knew I could forgive you, of course, but I wasn’t sure I’d want to take the risk of bringing you back into our lives.” She explained. “I was afraid killing Abby would just turn you for the worst, and I didn’t want that around my son.” She pulls a loose hair from her face, and places it behind her ear. “But then you said that you didn’t kill Abby. Then I saw just how much you changed, and the weight that had finally lifted from your shoulders…I know now, that things will be different.”

“They will be, Dina.” Ellie promised. “I am not that woman who walked away from you both anymore.”

“I know you’re not.”

“I want to be better, for you and for JJ.”

“I know you do.” Dina added. “And I plan to shoot you with your own rifle if you dare to not listen to me again.” She smiled.

Ellie chuckled. “Okay.”

“I’m not saying there’s no work that won’t need to be done. I just won’t give you as hard of a time of making it up to us, I think.”

“I’ll start by baking you pie.” Ellie teased.

“Please don’t. It’s going to be hard to replace this stove.” Both women quietly laughed. “So, does that mean you’ll stay?”

“Yeah.”

“I need to hear you say it.”

Ellie smiled. “I’m staying, Dina. I promise.”

“Oh, Ellie.” Dina carefully crawled over to their side of the couch, hovering over JJ to reach Ellie, and kiss her. Ellie returned it without any prompting needed, finding their rhythm again, as if it never left. The sweetness of the kiss was enough to make her heart explode and she felt grateful that Dina hadn’t forsaken her for her past mistake. They kissed for as long as they could before Dina got tired of holding herself up, and backed away. “Come here.”

Dina laid against the arm rest of her side of the couch, and Ellie followed suit. She positioned herself so that she was between Dina’s legs, her back resting against her, with JJ still secured in her arms. Dina wrapped one of her arms around them both, the other propped on the head of the couch. Angling enough so that she could scratch Ellie’s scalp with her fingers. She nuzzled her nose into Ellie’s hair and kissed it.

“First things first, we’re washing this after I get back from stable duties tomorrow. Not wooing me or sitting for JJ with your head smelling like a block of old cheese.” Dina joshed.

Ellie chuckled and smiled. “Okay.”

**Author's Note:**

> You can follow me:
> 
> Tumblr: wolfjillyjill  
> Twitter: @thelonewolf28  
> Instagram: wolfjillyjill


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